Rock Paintings of Helan Mountains

Rock Paintings of Helan Mountains (simplified Chinese: 贺兰山岩画; traditional Chinese: 賀蘭山岩畫; pinyin: Hèlánshān Yánhuà), also known as Helanshan Rock Art,^[3] are images carved into the rocks of Helan Mountains, Ningxia.^[4]

Petroglyphs of Helan Mountains

Location	Helanshan, Ningxia
History
Periods	Neolithic to Western Xia[1]
Site notes
Discovered	5th century AD[2]

Helanshan Rock Art is representative of rock paintings in northern China, with rich and concentrated subject matter. As of December 2020, tens of thousands of petroglyphs have been discovered,^[5] and they were created between 10,000 and 3,000 years ago.^[6]

Discoveries

The Helanshan Rock Art was first discovered by Li Daoyuan, a geographer of the Northern Wei dynasty, in the 5th century AD in Commentary on the Water Classic.^[7] In modern times, it was rediscovered by Li Xiangshi (李祥石)^[8] in 1969.^[9]

The truly comprehensive and systematic studies and findings of Helanshan Rock Art have been made since China's reform and opening up.^[10]

Creation periods

The creation periods of Helanshan Rock Art can be roughly divided into three stages, the first stage is the Neolithic,^[11] the second stage is from the Qin dynasty to the Northern and Southern dynasties, and the third stage is from the Sui dynasty to the Western Xia.^[12]

Conservations

In 1996, Helanshan Rock Art was included in the third batch of the list of Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in China.^[13] In 1997, it was inscribed on the Unofficial List of World Cultural Heritage (非正式世界文化遗产名录)^[14] by the International Petroglyph Committee of UNESCO (联合国教科文组织国际岩画委员会).^[15]